Wellness Grain-Free Chicken & Lobster Wet Cat Food, 12.5oz, Pack of 12

This review is for the 24 pack of 3 Oz. cans of the Wellness Brand Cat Food.

Objectively speaking…
The cans are easy to ope and they have consistently arrived in excellent condition. There are 24 cans at 3 oz. each. That’s all I can really say objectively about cat food.

Subjectively speaking…
I could not believe the difference in my cats after switching to a canned cat food from dry food. My cats are 15 and 16 years old. They are healthy indoor cats who are still active and playful with no real health problems aside from my 16 year old cat having minor diabetes. I had been feeding a high priced prescription (vet recommended) dry food for the last 2 years only to have my 15 year old cat begin getting sick and regurgitating his food on a weekly basis. I took my cat to the vet repeatedly asking why this might be a problem. The vet simply told me that the cat may be a little under the weather or it was hairball related…which before had not been an issue. After a conversation with a friend in Dec 2010 they emphatically recommended canned cat food. I decided to do some research and was I glad that I did. My cats have been eating canned food for 2 months now and here are the changes I’ve noticed. My cat who was throwing up 2-4 times a week has only done so 4 times in 2 months (and I think that was because he was biting at some straw that I didn’t know about), their fur is ridiculously softer…like I just spent an hour brushing them, now it feels that way all the time. And although my cats are not prone to hairballs, my medium haired cat would get them on occasion and he has had only 1 very small one in 2 months as opposed to the weekly ones I’d find in the house. They have more energy and they just seem happier in how they interact and the littler box has less to be cleaned up and quite frankly it smells less offensive than it did before. Don’t get me wrong…cat boxes smell but I’ve been told (and now I feel I can attest to this) that dry food would dehydrate a cat and it would enter a system and absorb odors from the body and carry them out into the cat box to amplify the foul odors. Actual cat food like the Wellness brand (not many brands are grain or rice free) gets more fully digested by the cat and does not contain grains and rices and other fillers that are expelled with the body. I must say that I felt the fool not having taken more time to learn about the diet possibilities of my cats.

I will note that I also use the Wellness dry food (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup out each night) for my 2 cats to eat between their canned meals. This is also to keep them used to eating a little dry food in case I am in a situation where I cannot provide their can in the morning and night. For your reference I feed my cats each 1/2 a can in the morning and 1/2 in the evening (so 2 cans total daily). I am going to switch to the 12 oz cans though because they are much cheaper, you nearly double your canned food for the same price, I’m just going to buy a resealable lid and scoop out what is needed.

And as a side note, my cats eat most of the food when I leave it out but they do not finish it all. I do leave the food out for them to finish up which they usually do within 1-3 hours. Some people say you should never do this, some say they will leave it out all day…in my experience over the 2 months I have noticed no mold, illness or rejection of this food being left out for a few hours for my cats. The longest I’ve seen food remain in the is at the 7 hour mark and still, it was finished with no negative behaviors or effects noticed in either of my animals.

I hope this review helps you and please be aware specifically of what goes into certain brands. There are cheaper canned foods but they are not as good as this brand. I’ve checked and tried a few. This one is really different. There are a few websites which explain the health benefits more precisely and if you won’t take my word for it on this brand see for yourself. Also, the cost is well worth the response you will get from your cat and when measured against prescription dry food it really hasn’t been much different and the 12 oz sizes will make it even more affordable. Be good to yourself and your pets!

My cat is very happy with this food.

I have been feeding my cats Wellness Food for four years now.

What I like most is that, like most of the Wellness line, this Chicken and Herring blend is made without grains. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they only need meat…in the wild they only get grains in the stomach of prey they eat. If you put grains in food, cats continue to eat until they’ve had enough protein. So the grain is just added calories for nothing. Since grains are cheaper per ounce, it’s a great way to save the manufacturer money, but it’s not good for your cats.

In the first year after switching from dried food and lower-quality grain-filled wet food, both my cats lost weight and their fur became softer and shinier. The difference was most evident in my plump, dumb inactive cat; he lost a couple of pounds and went from middle-aged dumpy to sleek and active. He has gotten a lot smarter and is more lively in general.

I also like that this food doesn’t have any rendered animal fat or meat byproducts, which are disgusting slaughterhouse waste it is illegal to sell to humans.

As far as how my cats feel, they think this is just okay. They would give it three stars for the smell/taste. They always prefer the cheap stuff, like fancy feast, because it is swimming in rendered fat which smells delicious to cats just like potato chips do to humans. I call it “kitty crack.” Cats choose food mainly on smell, not taste, which works great in the wild but not so much with commercial foods where their quality sensor is way off. To get my cats to eat this food at first, I needed to mix it with kitty crack–first only a quarter good to 3/4 kitty crack and gradually building up to 100% over about six months. It’s never a good idea to get into a battle of will with cats…first of all, you’ll lose, and second it is not safe for them to go more than 24 hours without food because of potentially fatal liver issues.

After the initial break-in period, my cats ate this happily. This is the favorite of both my cats, followed by Turkey/Salmon blend as second favorite. I buy a variety to mix it up nutritionally and to make sure they don’t get too fussy. Since they never overeat this, I simply feed them as much as they want…if they ask for more, I give it.

One can is enough to feed one cat per day. This size must be opened with a can opener and stored in between uses. For this reason not as convenient as the 5.5 ounce sizes which you just pull open, but the cost difference over a year is substantial. It’s not too much of a pain as on days that aren’t too hot I leave this on the counter at room temperature between feedings. If for any reason it’s not done by bedtime I put it in the fridge. Cat’s digestion is much faster and a bit of bacteria in food is less likely to cause problems.

Cost-wise, these are about $2 a day, and Amazon’s price is competitive with big-box pet food stores. When I first started using this, the price seemed prohibitive so I took out the calculator and did a serious analysis. Compared with the Fancy Feast I was buying at a big-box store, per ounce this is a LOT more expensive. But then I realized that since Fancy Feast is packed with grains and junk cats don’t need, comparing price by weight isn’t fair. I redid the analysis based on daily servings of protein, calories etc. and the two foods turned out identical in cost. It would still be cheaper to feed dried food but if I’m going to go 100% wet the price of this is actually comparable to supermarket foods.

Wellness also sells a Core brand which is even higher quality, but it doesn’t come in the larger more economical cans, making it prohibitively expensive.

Note: I read the one star reviews from here. Looks like there have been some quality-control issues with a new plant. I have not experienced this issue…the quality appears the same in the 4+ years I’ve been buying this. However, I will post if I experience a problem and update my review immediately.

We switched to Wellness minced canned a decade ago and our cats are all perky, shiny eyed, glossy with thick warm fur, and healthy. One problem with this brand is that there isn’t always the same amount of moisture in each can. Cats really don’t drink much in nature and get most of their water from the food they kill, so even though we always have bowls of water for them, when we get cans of food without enough water we always mix in extra so that the food has a gravy which they love and forces them to drink enough water which is extremely important for their health. Aside from that I’ve never seen happier healthier cats, and I’ve had 5 of them, all from the humane society, and all began only in so-so shape. Our latest kit was about a year old and had already had 7 kittens herself and had been through a hysterectomy right before we took her home. After two weeks of this food the shaved part of her coat has grown back the first layer, her fur is glossy, her eyes are bright and sparkly, and she has a lot of zest.
I know a lot of cat foods have come out over the years but this one is made in the USA and seems to be doing a great job and as long as my cats like it and are as healthy as can be they will be getting it. And, best of all, they love it.